Assistant Men's Soccer Coach Anthony Adams and Assistant Men's Basketball Coach Randy Monroe have been named AFLAC National Assistant Coaches of the Year. Adams and Monroe are two of only 27 Division I coaches nationwide to receive the honor. Winners were selected from a field of more than 350,000 coaches across the nation.

A panel of judges from Scholastic Coach and Athletic Director magazine, the nation's leading publication for the team athletic marketplace, made the selections. The criteria in the second annual AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year program allowed for coaches to win based on longevity, expertise, contributions to the school and community, and special achievements throughout their careers. The selections were based on nominations made by head coaches, athletic administators, past and current student-athletes, fans and the Board members.

Adams, a 1997 UMBC graduate and four-year letterwinner in men's soccer, has assisted Head Men's Soccer Coach Pete Caringi for the past six seasons. The Retrievers have captured two regular season NEC titles and made one NCAA appearance in that span. The Baltimore native has also been recognized as one of the nation's top assistant soccer coaches by CollegeSoccerNews.com.

"I am very thankful to Coach Caringi, (Director of Athletics) Dr. Charles Brown and AFLAC to have the opportunity to win this award," said Adams. "It is always nice to be recognized."

"This is a well-deserved award," said Coach Caringi. "Anthony is very dedicated and loyal, and, as an assistant coach, those qualities are very important in any program."

Monroe has been at UMBC for nine seasons and has helped Head Coach Tom Sullivan build the Retrievers into a perennial league contender and a three-time Battle of Baltimore champion. The Philadelphia native and former basketball standout at Cheyney University ('82) is very involved with UMBC's Community Service program.

"I am extremely happy to receive this honor," said Monroe. "To be named along with people the quality of a (Maryland Assistant Men's Basketball Coach) Dave Dickerson, and our own Anthony Adams, is quite an honor."

"Randy's steadfast loyalty to the players, along with his personal integrity, are the attributes that made him deserving of this honor," said Coach Sullivan. "On the practice courts and in the community, he is a role model to the student-athletes."

"AFLAC is pleased to sponsor the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Program," Joe Kuechenmeister, AFLAC senior vice president, stated. "Assistant coaches are the unsung heroes of American sport. So many of us were positively affected by our participation in sports that we wanted to pay tribute to these hard-working, under-recognized coaches who do so much to improve the young people that they work with."

"We were extremely impressed with the quality of the nominees," Bruce Weber, publisher of Scholastic Coach and Athletic Director commented. "The majority of the nominations were prepared in great detail. The nominators obviously felt very deeply about the assistant coaches they were recommending."

AFLAC is one of the world's leading providers of insurance at the worksite and insures more than 40 million people worldwide.